Features

Failure is the million-dollar MBA

Having to close a start-up may be painful but lessons can be learnt

Rachel Stacey lost £20k she raised as start-up cash by remortgaging her flat (Gabriel Szabo)
Rachel Stacey was filled with optimism when she started her own business. She
was convinced she would make a success of Mind the Gap Solutions, which
offered quality assurance and due diligence services for manufacturing
firms.

Two years later the business foundered, swallowing the £20,000 she had raised
as start-up cash by remortgaging her flat.

Stacey had hoped to sign up 10 customers but found that few firms were
interested in paying for her services.

Worse still, her boyfriend lost his job and they had to use her marketing
money for living expenses.

In 2008, Stacey, of Kirton in Lindsey, north Lincolnshire, threw in the towel
and took a regular job, closing the business the following year.

“I did a lot of storming around the house,” said Stacey, 34. “I was frustrated
because I knew it was a good idea. I felt I was a failure.”